Don Letts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
Don Letts (born January 10, 1956 in London, England) is a film director and musician. Starting out as a sales clerk at the trendy London clothing store Acme Attractions (which was comparable to King Road's shop SEX/Seditionaries), he later moved onto DJing and film making. His film The Punk Rock Movie documents the original UK punk rock movement. His film Westway to the World won a Grammy award in 2003. Letts recorded a 1978 EP, Steel Leg v the Electric Dread, with Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, and Steel Leg.
He later became a founding member of Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones of The Clash.
Letts worked as a DJ in the Roxy, a London nightclub during the original outbreak of punk in England. As few bands of that era had yet recorded, there were limited punk rock records to be played. Instead, Letts included many dub and reggae records in his sets, and is credited with introducing those sounds to the London punk scene, which was to influence The Clash and other bands. As a tribute, he is pictured on the cover of the album Super Black Market Clash.
In recent years, Letts has been working mainly as a filmmaker, and is currently filming and producing a movie about Stiff Little Fingers.
In 2006, he published an autobiography, Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers.
As of 1st April 2007 Don is now presenting a weekly show (Saturday's, 23:00 - 00:00) on BBC Radio 6 Music.
[edit] Filmography (as Director)
"Soul Britannia" (2007)
- Rock It To Rio: Franz Ferdinand (2006)
- Tales of Dr. Funkenstein: George Clinton (2006)
- The Making of All Mod Cons: The Jam (2006)
- Brother From Another Planet: Sun Ra (2005)
- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Gil Scott-Heron) 2005
- The Right Spectacle: The Very Best of Elvis Costello - The Videos (2005) (V)
- Punk: Attitude (2005) (TV)
- Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament (2004) (V)
- One Love (2003)
- The Essential Clash (2003) (V)
- The Pretenders: Greatest Hits (2000) (V) (video "Back on the Chain Gang")
- The Clash: Westway to the World (2000) (V)
- Dancehall Queen (1997)
- Dancing in the Streets:Planet Rock (1997) (TV)
- Pretenders: The Singles (1988) (V) (video "Back on the Chain Gang")
- The Punk Rock Movie (1978)
